Evening and Sunday parking charges plan scrapped

South Kesteven District Council has scrapped plans to introduce new tariffs in its car parks

A council has withdrawn plans to introduce evening, Sunday and bank holiday charges in its car parks.

South Kesteven District Council (SKDC) had proposed introducing a £3 charge for parking on Sundays and bank holidays as well as an evening charges in Grantham and Stamford.

A petition against the charges from Councillor Amanda Wheeler had 2,859 signatures.

The council's cabinet voted unanimously to withdraw the plan for the new charges, but agreed to increase current parking fees.

To assess the impact, the council has agreed to commission a car parking study six months after the introduction of the new rates, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

SKDC will also introduce two hours of free parking in short-stay and three hours of free parking in long-stay car parks from Monday to Wednesday between 2 December and 24 December in both Stamford and Grantham.

During the meeting, councillor Richard Cleaver, cabinet member for property and public engagement, said: “We have listened to the informal feedback that we have received from a number of stakeholders and the papers in front of you today reflect our response.

“It needs to be noted that the parking charges have not been increased in the last two and a half years, during which time there has been at least a 20% increase in inflation. So doing nothing was never an option for us.”

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